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I was asked by Ammon Pera to blog about a stunning exhibition here in Second Life, and as usual with assignments, found myself rather surprised and pleased to be exploring a fascinating, interesting, albeit saddening bit of history, recreated in breathtaking detail.

On November 10th, 1938, there began in Nazi Germany a pogrom of persecution of Jews that extended into Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, and began the annexation of most of Europe by the Nazi regime.

This night, known as “Kristallnacht” or literally “Crystal Night” was one of horror for Jews across Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, as Nazi troops began a systematic racial purge consisting of destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, homes, synagogues, and schools. The “Crystal” makes reference to the breaking of glass which accompanied horror after horror, and the US Holocaust Memorial in Second Life features a gripping depiction of the Jewish quarter of a German city, slathered with anti-Judaism graffiti, broken glass, burned books and holy scriptures, and desecrated synagogues, schools, and homes, through which one may walk in eerie silence, observing the aftermath of hate. Small blue information click-points are dotted throughout the exhibit, and provide informational text when clicked. Also featured is a video wall playing live video accounts from witnesses and victims of this dark night in history.

With recent resurfacing of hate agendas against gay Americans here in the US, this little tour was a stunning reminder of just how quickly “a little” political expression of intolerance can escalate into a world-wide conflagration encompassing the murder, rape, and disenfranchisement of millions.

Second Life is certainly for fun, and I’m not one to go chasing “sobering” moments in here, but this little sojourn brought me up short, and left a deep impression.

I served for two years in Berlin during the era of the Wall, traveled into communist East Germany at the time, and visited the various memorials and museums of the holocaust located throughout Germany. I was even assigned to guard duty at Spandau Prison in Berlin, standing watch over the then-living last Nazi prisoner of the Nuremberg war trials, Rudolph Hesse, by then a pathetic shadow of a man, babbling incoherently to himself within his cell, and prone to begging American and Russian soldiers for treats, knowing that interaction with him was absolutely forbidden by our military leadership, and would result in disciplinary action against us.

In the front of Spandau Prison, just inside the entry gates, still stood a pair of crematory ovens, in mute testimony, side by side, of the disposal of the remains of those held there for interrogation by the dreaded Gestapo of the Nazi War Machine. The US Holocaust Memorial in Second Life held that same eerie sense of foreboding history for me, and that same uncomfortable feeling that in this world, history is prone to be repeated, if forgotten.

Visit the US Holocaust Memorial in Second Life, slurl.com/secondlife/US%20Holocaust%20Museum1/1/35/26 and be reminded in these difficult economic times, of just how much our parents’ or grandparents' generation sacrificed, and of just how bad life could be, for nearly 6 million who did not survive Hitler’s regime. Kinda makes one look at our problems of today in a whole different light, ya know? Lilah tov!